from the justice department there's been 0.0003% voter fraud, there isn't a widespread voter fraud. the only voter fraud is the fraud that there is widespread voter fraud. we are looking at a situation where you have a solution to no problem. so, therefore, it only leads us to believe since the collateral damage is that according to the brennan institute 5 million people will beenfranchised from voting because they don't have voter i.d., that must be the goal because you certainly aren't protecting us against voter fraud because it's not there at a widespread level. >> i have talked about it extensively on the radio, and you will not be surprised to hear that a sentiment i often hear is that folks say, well, i have to show an i.d. for everything. i had to show my i.d. to get into 30 rock today. why not show an i.d. when you're going out to exercise the franchise, an i.d. of some kind?

>> and we should. and you do. the fact of the matter, let's take alabama, for example, where we are having the big march today. they have a voter i.d. law they put in place for 2003 where you can show your i.d. or your utilities bill or something. why do you need to go in 2012 to a more state sponsored i.d.? the i.d.s that are in place already are sufficient. so we're not saying no voter i.d. we're saying why are you having voter i.d. that is limited to a state license or a passport when, in fact, seniors, students, and a disproportionate amount of minorities don't have those i.d.s. we're not saying no i.d. >> what you're saying and i think this makes great common sense is show an i.d. of some kind that is tapered or tailored to the particular community in which folks are voting so that, for example, if it's a community --

>> which -- >> yes, sir. >> which is what we've historically done. what i'm saying is the i.d. we used when we voted for reagan, bush, clinton, bush, why all of a sudden are we changing the i.d. laws now if there's been no problem of voter fraud with i . i.d.? why all of a sudden are we changing the i.d. needed? why the difference now? >> i had a phone caller yesterday who raised a point i think you'll like to hear, and his argument was to the extent that there's such concern about voter fraud, interesting that thus far in the republican primary process no one has alleged any of the type of fraud that would seem to warrant these wholesale changes. in other words, it doesn't seem to have been problematic for the last several weeks. >> and the interesting part about that is that it is the republicans pushing it, but they zrnt push it in their own primaries, and we saw in iowa

where they announced romney was the winner and then all of a sudden we found santorum won. nobody said, oh, was it voter i.d.? and those caucuses. is this voter suppression? that's why we're marching because we won the right to vote 47 years ago marching selma to montgomery. we must protect the right to vote by being against all forms of voter suppression and we see these over 30 states is engaged in voter suppression because there is no fraud that they're trying to combat here. >> reverend al sharpton, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> so let's bring in our panel now. richard bloomingdale is the president of the pennsylvania afl-cio. joy ann reed is the managing editor of the grio.com and crystal ball is an msnbc contributor and democratic strategist. richard, let me begin with a fellow pennsylvanian, when i go to vote, sir, in montgomery county, i sign my name. is that enough of a precaution?

is that enough of a legitimacy check in our state? >> absolutely, michael. and thank you for having me on the show. you know, for, god, years it's been plenty. our judges of elections know us and recognize us and it's all about local involvement, and, you know, we're trying to get to this big brother attitude of let's try to make everybody papers, please, when they walk into their polling place. when i have voted in the same place for 17 years and before that 20 years. my judge of elections knows me. a signature is fine. there is no voter fraud as reverend al sharpton mentioned. this is about failed ideas. this is about the right wing -- >> that's the way it is at my polling place as well. you know, they know me because i'm a blowhard but they also know me because i've lived in the neighborhood for a long, long time. in a neighborhood that has much more transition, i'm sure they don't get to know folks, and i wonder whether ballot security measures are sufficient at present? somewhere in there there's the proper balance.

>> the thing is the reason that i'm cynical about these attempts to sort of stop so-called voter fraud, i lived in florida for 14 years. there's no place more transitional than that, people come and go, but when the republicans in florida decided to pass voter i.d. laws, they didn't get at the one place that there ever has been fraud, which is absentee balloting, but absentee balloting happens to be where republicans are strongest so they completely ignored the potential for absentee voter ballot fraud and they went at the things democrats tend to do, early voting or requiring an i.d., things that tend to hit voters that don't vote for them. >> crystal, i think there are isolated incidents of voter fraud that get blown out of proportion. one of them happened in my hometown in the '08 section involving the new black panthers. truly two knuckleheads in my view looking to get on tv and not to intimidate anybody, but matt drudge blew it way out of proporti proportion. risch limbaugh touted it and

there was a concern the election was being stolen. it steams there's a lack of data to prove there's a problem that warrants such widespread change. >> yeah. as you're pointing out, it's been absolute utter political propaganda, and there's another reason to be cynical other than the reasons that joy ann was pointing out. if you look at which states have really pushed these efforts, and it goes way beyond just a government i.d., they're attacking this process at every stage from voter registration to when you can vote, the early voting, to then actually being able to vote on election day. but if you look at the states that have really pushed these efforts, they are states that have had large growths in minority populations. places like florida and georgia and texas have been on the front lines, and when you look at the fact that 25% of voting age african-american voters do not have the government i.d. that they are requiring, it becomes quite clear that this is an effort at voter suppression and a cynical machiavellian political tactic. >> richard, i want investigate

mat voters out there and voting. one of the things i'm most proud of is i've never missed an election in my life. we need more pom voeople voting long as they're legitimate. i like reverend al saying to show an i.d. is not objectionable so long as we're tapering what form offism d. i might be to the community we're trying to serve. >> you know, in going back to what chris tal wrystal was sayis about fear. the people that have been in charge are losing power and they want to make sure people don't vote. anytime -- if erect a fence, if it's one foot, it's still a fence. if it's a foot high, it's still a fence. any kind of attempt to keep people vote something wrong. you're right, america is about inclusion, not exclusion. we have to make sure more people vote and have the opportunity to vote. we don't need to be erecting barriers to our seniors and in pennsylvania it would

disenfranchise a disproportionate number of seniors. we saw wall street and santorum fail -- >> thank you. let me ask crystal a player. how is this playing with is, with independents? the hard core gop base says it's just ballot integrity. as i like to underscore the power really rests in the hands in independents in my view come november. what are they thinking as they watch this? >> this is my own personal opinion not based on polling, but my sense is thus far republicans have done a much better job of messaging on this issue which issy i'm so grateful to people like reverend sharpton who are bringing this to the forefront. i think this is the single most important issue facing the country. it's not just in these voter i.d. laws. we also see in the pushback against illegal immigration. ann coulter said if we allow i will lem immigrants to become citizens, the whole country will go the way of california and no republican will be able to get

elected again. this is about a broad range of efforts to keep their people at the polls and more democratic leaning voters out. >> joy ann, do you concede that thus far on this issue the gop has done a better imaging job? >> well, i think that people think it's logical that you should show an i.d. i think it's hard to argue with the logic of that when you have to show an i.d. for so many other aspects of ordinary life, but i think what crystal said is where it gets to. if you're the republican party right now, let's just keep it real, okay? your base is getting down to primarily white men. you have lost hispanics because of the messaging on immigration. you have lost african-americans decades ago for any number of reasons. you are now largely a southern, western party. you're landlocked to certain parts of the united states. so you can grow your -- you can make yourself a national party two ways. you can either get more people to vote republican and bring more people in, or you can get more of the other team away from the polls and keep them from voting, and right now i think republicans are playing a very cynical game.

they're saying, listen, we can't grow our base, so we're going to try to suppress the other team. >> i think reverend sharpton had the right message for "d"s and for "i"s, people who are able to be persuaded on this issue, which is to say -- to ask for identification is not offensive, not problematic, but let's be reasonable as to what form of identification that might be. >> if you look in texas, they're saying student i.d.s -- >> but a gun license works, yeah. end of argument. richard bloomingdale, thank you very much. joy ann and crystal stick around. >> thank you. >> more strong evidence of an improving job market and economy. the labor department says 227,000 jobs were added last month. the unemployment rate held steady at 8.3% in large part because more people started looking for work again. this report breaks five straight months of declines but the jobless rate is now nearly 2% lower than the recession high of 10% set in october of 2009. [ male announcer ] this is lois.

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tomorrow kansas holds its caucus. text news alabama and mississippi hold their primaries, and mitt romney is trying out a new southern strategy. he's trying to be one of them. let's listen to this. >> he is now turning me into, i don't know, an unofficial southerner and i'm learning to say y'all around i like grits. string things are happening to me. >> but it seems like a contradiction when you hear what he said in a radio interview. >> how important is it for you to pick up a southern state? >> well, i realize that it's a bit of an away game, but i also think we're going to pick up some support in the states that remain this month. >> joanne reed and crystal ball are back with me. crystal, not a good sign if the gop candidate is saying it's an away game on what should be the home court, and certainly needs

to be come the fall. >> yeah. when you look at mitt romney, this is a guy who likes sport and is not a big hunter, but he hunts small varmints and things. he's not an ardent fan of nascar but he knows some team owners. the south is not his best area to compete in and he's struggled with lower income voters. mississippi and alabama are tw of the poorer states in the country. i have been saying mitt romney needs to stop trying to be what he thinks people want him to be and embrace his inner square, wear the suit he's more comfortable in, and embrace that. >> i think i like the real mitt romney. i happen to think that the real mitt romney was a guy who was the governor of massachusetts but, you know, he wants to forget about that past. if he would embrace that vision of mitt romney, he might not win the primary process but he'd be a stronger general election candidate. >> i'm not sure who the real

mitt romney is because he doesn't really show himself. i think the problem romney has is the base of the republican party, they don't trust this new iteration of romney 2.0 is authentic. to your point, they believe the guy who ran massachusetts is the real mitt romney but he can't get elected in a republican primary. >> i fear religion is playing a larger role than has been acknowledged which is a sad commentary. i think the lds status of mitt romney, his membership in the church, how else to explain he can't get to 30% in the south? >> here is what i think. i don't think him being mormon in itself is totally disqualifying in the south, but i think the fact that he has trouble relating to them culturally on other issues and seems a bit removed and has struggled to connect with ordinary folks, when you throw in the fact he has a different religion and he can't relate to them either in their faith tradition, it just adds another obstacle. >> you might be right but i looked at some of the exit surveys for tennessee in

particular where three-quarters of the folks were saying i need somebody like me when it comes to religion to vote for them. i say it's not a theocracy, it's a democracy -- >> i think a more skilled politician could pull it off. >> he should have confronted this spot on in the midst of the con interetraception debate. >> show a little courage. >> say it's a little out of control. let me show you the new santorum super pac that seems to go after both opponents. >> how can mitt romney or newt gingrich beat barack obama when on the vital decisions they're not much different? like obama, gingrich supported individual health insurance mandates and lobbied for freddie mac. mitt created romney care. >> what do you make of it? >> i think it's an effective attack. i don't want to say it's a fair attack, but i think either gingrich or romney, since they did support the individual mandate in the past, will have a harder time using that as a weapon against president obama in the fall. >> joy ann, i saw a headline today that said rick santorum

surging in california. california is june 2nd. are we still going to be at this on june 2nd? >> i don't know how long it's going to go. just to be back to your previous point, george w. bush was a patrician. he was the son of a former united states president. he was a methodist, not even a southern baptist. it's not about the patrician nature of romney. i think the republican base likes rich people, it's the style. rick santorum is from pennsylvania. newt gingrich is from pennsylvania. newt gingrich doesn't have the ingredients that the base would seem to want. he was for the individual mandate. if you look at rick santorum, his voting record makes him appear to be a rio to a lot of the base. >> lallow me to bring in peter alexander live at the town hall meeting in jackson, mississippi. what is mitt romney trying to accomplish and how is he dealing with the jobs numbers? >> reporter: as you see the governor speaking to a crowd in jackson. the adviser we spoke to said 37

straight months of below or -- excuse me above 8% unemployment is in his words nothing to cheer about. the governor has been going after president obama again throughout the course of this town hall meeting inanothering h -- ignoring his rivals. the strategy, while not inspiring to a lot of people from the romney campaign, they say they do have a plan and they say second place is sufficient. their priority is to come into the state and pick up delegates. they're trying to frame themselves as a fighting underdog as romney's top aide in mississippi told me a matter of minutes ago. mitt romney, as you played a short time ago, saying it feels like this is an away game, but they do have some strategy specifically in this state. they hope to win in some of the urban area where is romney has more appeal, close to memphis and the northern part of the state, along the southern border, along the gulf, and right here in the prime areas in and around jackson itself. >> do they acknowledge the moments that we seem to dwell on, the stumbles, the grits

reference, the disconnect issue? do they acknowledge that's a real issue or do they try to fluff over it when you're interacting with his senior campaign aides? >> reporter: well, in terms of the grits moment that i think you're referring to, just this morning when he came out the first thing he said, the governor said, make sure i get it right, hi y'all. he's trying to play into the narrative that he's not from here but he's here to help areas of the entire country. to beat barack obama and to improve the american economy. the issue of religion is interesting. i had a conversation with some of the people here in states he's losted tennessee and georgia, michael, more than 6 in 10 said one of their top priorities was they had a candidate who shared their religious beliefs. obviously, as a mormon he does not share their religious beliefs of a large population of evangelical christians in this state. nonethele nonetheless, the people i have spoken to say they feel strongly he's the guy that can get the job done and more importantly he's the guy that can beat the

president. >> thank you very much for your report. we appreciate it. health care has been a huge campaign issue. >> by the time i get sworn in on january 20th, they will have repealed obama care. >> if this president is re-elected, and in particular obama care is implemented. >> he passed obama care. i will repeal obama care. >> so mark this date on your calendar. march the 26th, that's when the supreme court is going to start to hear three days' worth of oral argument on the health care law. the front page of today's "new york times" by way of example explains how the white house is already trying to get out in front of this issue. they've been summoning groups to the white house to gin up support and even plan rallies outside the supreme court. this is going to be huge, joy ann. this is one of those intangibles. meaning it's like a football. who knows which way it's going to bounce in june. >> and i think the other thing is that the supreme court has, i believe, now so politicized itself. since 2000, i don't think people necessarily trust that the security is an apolitical actor

and then you have clarence thomas on the court whose wife has been active in lobbying against the health care reform bill. i think the result is tainted before it happens. and people are looking at this as a political action on the part of the court. >> if it's 5-4 decision, that's definitely what the perception is going to be. you look at the polling, the administration has yet it seems to convince a majority of independents that the requirement of buying health insurance is a good idea. >> yeah, that's right. and i think one of the things that's frustrated me as a supporter of the health care law is that after it passed, it was kind of like a thank goodness that's over, let's move on, and they didn't do the job of following up and continuing to really sell to the american people the benefits of this plan and how things were going to roll out and what they could expect to see. so to me i look at these planned events and the plan to gin up support and talk about health care and embrace it as one of his signature achievements probably his most -- certainly one of his most important achievements of his first term and really embrace it and say we're proud of what we did. >> my advice for what it's worth

is they missed an opportunity to cast this as a matter of personal responsibility, an agreement you normally hear coming from the right where they say why should society pick up the tab for people who show up in an er without health insurance? that's not fair to the rest of us. >> mitt romney makes that argument very well when he's talking about massachusetts. >> you have this issue of free riders. it's interesting that now the people on the right are arguing for free ridership. they're saying i have a right to go in the er and be turned away and die on the street if i don't have -- >> complete role reversal, agreed. thank you very much. a documentary about a humanitarian crimes situation is getting massive worldwide attention. now has more than 52 million views on youtube. it's the 29 minute vod yes kony 2012 and it targets joseph kony and the lord's resistance army. it profile's his alleged atrocities against children. the film's director was on the

"today" show this morning. >> we want the international community to respond. there was a responsibility to protect the u.n. committed to, angelina jolie, george clooney, they have been talking about it for a long time. and now the youth are waking up and they're saying we want you to pay attention to this right now. >> the international criminal court has named kony the world's number one war criminal. whis the your business entrepreneur of the week? anna barbour observed scribble press in los angeles in 2008. it's a place where kids can turn their art and writing into books. it prompted her to open another location in new york city managing from 3,000 miles away has been a challenge, but she's helped with a group of moms who have invested in the stores. for more watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc. thanks for babysitting the kids, brittany.

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>> and after a long stretch of campaigning, there's nothing like kicking back and having a dance. here is newt and calist hitting the dance floor yesterday in jackson, mississippi. the song that got them out there, "rocket man" by elton john. my favorite story of the day, game change. it debuts tomorrow on hbo. i have already seen it. i have questions for two specific people. we'll do that next. with no veg? ♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie. could've had a v8. new v8 v-fusion smoothie. [ male announcer ] nyquil cold and flu relieves your cough 50% longer than tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime. [ snoring continues ] [ male announcer ] because snoring sounds better than coughing. if you can't take a sick day, here's a cold hard fact. alka-seltzer plus cold & cough

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is now within your grasp with the all-new e-trade 360 investing dashboard. e-trade 360 is the world's first investing homepage that shows you where all your investments are and what they're doing with free streaming quotes, news, analysis and even your trade ticket. everything exactly the way you want it, all on one page. transform your investing with the all-new e-trade 360 investing dashboard. here is a look at some other story that is people are talking about right now. sunday marks one year since the devastating earthquake and tsunami in japan that killeded 16,000 people and triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis since chernobyl. nearly a year later tens of thousands are still displaced and small villages along the coast that depend on fishing have been devastated. an investigation is under way into a deadly shooting at the pittsburgh psychiatric

clinic. on thursday a man armed with two semiautomatic handguns burst into the clinic lobby and started firing. one person was killed. at least six others were wounded. the gunman was shot dead apparently bipolice. officials say they have no motive but it appear the gunman ash acted along. a log truck collided with a vehicle in mississippi and lost its load. logs soared across the median and crashed through a couple's minivan. a few minutes before the crash, the couple had dropped off their children who would have been in the path of the logs. >> i couldn't imagine living with this. anybody in the back, i think it would have killed them. just glad no one was killed. it's a miracle. >> the couple is expected to be fine. a michigan woman who won a million dollar jackpot is under fire for accepting food stamps. 24-year-old amanda clayton chose a lump sum and after taxes she netted $500,000. clayton bought a new home and a car but still received public

assistance. >> just wanted to find out if you thought that was a right thing to do ethically or why you're still taking money from the state? >> well, i thought that they would cut me off, but since they didn't, i thought maybe it was okay because i'm not working. >> the state says it was clayton's responsibility to report her dramatic change in wealth within ten days. she's been dropped from the food stamp program. authorities have yet to decide if she'll face welfare fraud charges. a reporter remembers the hard way. what can happen if you don't look where you're going. that's coming up in down to the wire later this hour. tomorrow the much anticipated movie "game change" will debut on hbo but the reviews are already coming in. "the wall street journal's" nancy dewolfe smith writes, truth be told game change does not make anyone look good. in time the reviewer rights hbo's "game change" feels like

the cable tn hv version of that ad. if you think america dodged a bullet when sarah palin lost the vice presidency, this movie is happy to agree. michael customer con initial says palin, who has already said the adaptation is based on a false narrative, has reason to be concerned about her portrayal. it is devastating. back with me joy ann reed, krystal ball, and jim van dehie. am i too harsh in the portrayal of palin? >> no, you're spot on. i think the reality is what was devastating. she was put in to a position she clearly wasn't ready for because of a really pathetic vetting process by the mccain people, and at the time john harris and i wrote that the pick, if you knew the backstory of how she got picked, was disqualifying for mccain. in some ways you leave the movie feeling bad for palin because she was ill quipped and nobody

bothered to figure it out and they tossed her in there because she had all this celebrity appeal. they wanted the select appeal because they thought they couldn't win the election. so it's devastating for palin because the reality itself was devastating. >> we've all seen it. joy ann, did you think she came across as a more sympathetic figure? did you find yourself feeling sorry for sarah palin? >> i thought the parts that portrayed her as a mother were compelling and positive for her. that was about it. other than that she came across as someone who didn't even know her own mind. she didn't know her own opinion on global warming. she just seemed to know nothing. and it was actually frightening as an american to think how close this person came to being vice president of the united states. >> here is the trailer for the benefit of those, the majority, who have yet to see it. >> i will be honored to accept your nomination for vice president of the united states. >> krystal, here is who i want

to hear from p.m. i said i need to hear from two people. steve schmidt and nicolle wallace because the scenes that most hung with me, steve schmidt calling john mccain in the middle of the night and saying, she is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. nicolle wallace having spent 60 close days with her at the end of the movie saying to steve schmidt, i couldn't bring myself to vote for the ticket. unless the two of them step forward and say that just didn't happen or it didn't happen like that or that's a distortion, then i'm going to believe that's exactly the way it transpired. >> they were certainly the two people who were sort of most inside her psyche during the campaign, and interestingly, i read the book and i watched the movie, and i found that she was portrayed a bit more sympathetically in the book. i thought the book focused a little bit more on the aspect of her missing her young baby and being vulnerable as a mother, and i came away actually from the book having a more sympathetic impress of her and a harsher view of john mccain for his irresponsibility in choosing someone who had not been vetted

really at all, had never been asked a question about foreign policy, and he was so interested in taking the risk and having a win that he sacrificed his own slogan of putting country first. >> jim, in the movie, as portrayed in the book as well, no policy questions asked in that vetting process that steve schmidt put her through i guess with mark salter in that very rapid five-day process. >> yeah. it's crazy at the time, it's crazy in hretrospect. you asked about steve schmidt and his recollection. he said it's spot on and it captures his recollection of palin as a person, as a candidate. the person that should be thrilled by the movie is john mccain. he comes off looking like a really loveable war hero and i think -- >> what about krystal's comment that he comes across, i'll use

this word, as being reckless in being so willing to put her a heartbeat away from a 72-year-old who would have assumed the presidency. i get the grandfatherly thing here but i think she makes a darn good point, that he took such a risk for the country in tapping her. >> well, he took such a risk but the movie basically portrays it was his staff, it was a failure of vetting, and it basically gives him distance from it, and the movie also is way too forgiving of how darned dysfunctional that campaign was pre-bale. it was it was a mess when steve sha mart had to come into it. there's no doubt john mccain was the candidate. he deserves the bulk of the fault. you don't come away thinking john mccain was the reckless n one. it was all the peel around him. >> i want to ask about the political ramifications of this for sarah palin, for former governor palin. she's concerned obviously about it. the sarah pac has its own video.

i want to show you a bit of this where they're hitting back against "game change." >> my fellow americans, i'd proud to introduce to you the next vice president of the united states, welcome sarah palin of the great state of alaska. >> this is sarah. >> well, i'm not a member of the permanent political establishment. >> joy-ann, my 15-year-old, he's a bright bulb, he pulled his mother's dna, came into the room while i was watching the movie, sat down, hung with, it loved it, and said to me, dad, this could never had happened. he was talking about the portrayal of governor palin. what's the net effect politically because hard core supporters of governor palin are going to say this is a hit job by liberals in the media and hbo and they gave money to the other side anyway.

are views going to change about this? >> my 12-year-old pretended he was taking too long to do his homework so he could sit up and watch this entire movie and he said basically the same thing opinion he's like that lady doesn't know anything. he really was shocked that this was a person who was running for vice president of the united states. the problem for sarah palin, this narrative was baked in. it was baked in by "saturday night live," the portrayals of her have been consist went this, but the parts of the movie where she seemed catatonic, where she seemed literally unable to bring herself to absorb information, and the fact that she seemed resistant to absorbing information. she was only comfortable when memorizing things she could then regurgitate almost as an actress. that's frightening and i think it's devastating for her future in politics. >> what's the net effect for sarah palin? >> this was a perception that was already baked in. i think for people who see the movie,t's kind of an, oh, that's what was going on moment because we all watched that interview with katie couric and we are like how could this have happened? how could she be so unprepared she can't even name a single

newspaper? when you watch the film you go, oh, that makes sense. so i think a lot of people are going to feel like their suspicions about her were confirmed. >> jim, my only disappointment having read all 464 pages and loving "game change" is how much they didn't go into -- there must be five other hbo movies to be had in this book. >> i think that's my understanding is they might do others because to do everything i think would have been too much in one film, so they focused largely on palin because she's such a sort of cultural celebrity right now. on your point of does this help her or hurt her, it doesn't matter. if people love her, they love her. if they hate her, they already hate her. it's not going to change. one thing that made me sympathetic, she got thrown into this role after having to deal with alaskan politics, and she clearly has a capacity on the public stage that most politicians would kill for. that speech at the rnc was a wonderful speech. >> i remember it. beautiful. >> i was terrified.

>> had she -- >> i got -- jim, i got to interrupt you. i remember being there that night. i remember sending an e-mail and saying, here is the call that was just made from obama to biden. we got a problem on our hands because i was blown away by it, but then in the ensuing days you found out what the full picture entailed. joy-ann reed, krystal, jim, thank you very much. the politics of the rising gas prices. i will speak with former dnc chairman terry mcauliffe. here's an update on the progress. we're paying for all spill related clean-up costs. bp findings supports independent scientists studying the gulf's environment. thousands of environmental samples have been tested and all beaches and waters are open. and the tourists are back. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp.

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♪ amen, omen i'm thomas roberts. the agenda next hour a better than expected employment report, but we'll ask our power panel, can the president win re-election if the unemployment rate remains above 8%. mitt romney comes out swinging against president obama as he tries to win over a stubborn south. msnbc's chris hayes weighs in on the new gritty mitt romney. plus melissa harris perry

sounds off. plus, highlights from the women in the world summit, angelina jolie, enough said. michael? with predictions of $5 gas this summer, a new poll finds an overwhelming number of americans want the president and congress to do something about it. 85% say our leaders should take immediate action to try to control rising prices and what's the tipping point for drivers? $5.30 a gallon. that's the average price respondents said would force them to make major cutbacks in spending in other areas. pump politics are playing a major role in the campaign trail. newt gingrich is promising $2.50 gas while president obama dismisses that as a gimmick not based in reality. capitol hill republicans are blaming the president for lobbying setors to defeat a bill that would have sped up construction of the keystone oil pipeline. >> to comprehend how completely out of touch he is on this

issue. i mean, think about it. moment when -- at a moment when millions are out of work, gas prices are literally skyrocketing, and the middle east is in turmoil, we've got a president who is up making phone calls trying to block a pipeline here at home. >> i'm joined by terry mcauliffe, the former dnc chairman of the 2008 hillary clinton campaign and now the chairman of green tech automotive. a lot of chairmanships wrapped up. >> a lot of big titles. >> isn't he right about the optics politically? if gas prices spike in the summer and all of a sudden you're going to start to see commercials made about the president saying no to the keystone oil pipeline, won't that be a major issue come the fall? >> i think most people don't understand, first of all, michael, even if we went ahead with the keystone today, it will be many years until you would see one drop of oil. so it's not practical. it's not reality. president obama, we have done more drilling than we've ever done in the history of our country. for the first time in ten years we're importing less oil than we

have from oversea that is we use here. so he's making all the right moves. listen, you have to understand with oil it's a global market. it's china, it's india, it's brazil, it's the middle east turmoil. those are all -- and this is why i say, we got to plan for the next 10, 20 years. >> it begs the question quhaf can a president really do? is it one of those issues where you get hammered if you're in office when the prices spike and frankly you don't deserve the hammering and you get the benefit when the prices come down but you don't really deserve the credit for that either. >> true, good point. >> what can he do? >> we can do what he's trying to do. we need to be doing some renewables, wind and solar. i'm building electric car. we have to get off this dependence on foreign oil. but china is growing at such an exponential rate as is india, they are taking more energy every day. unless we fix this, we in the united states of america are going to be in a terrible bind. the president is trying to deal with this with more electric cars, moving to wind and solar.

as he says, all of the above. we're drilling now more than we've ever drilled. he's given out more permits than any president in the history of the country. he's doing it. republicans are just playing politics on the senate floor. >> in the suburbs of philadelphia yesterday i filled up. i paid $3.76 a gallon which happens to be spot on the national average. why are gas prices disparate across the country? why do you see in he is ka lation in california when i am paying what i paid in philly. >> it's the speculators too. it's a commodity people trade on. people are making a lot of money on this. it's unfortunate because the american consumers are the ones who are taking it. we need to move into electric vehicles. we have got to change the way we consume our energy in this country. you saw the problems in the middle east. that's not going to get any better. it's going to get worse. quit driving such big cars and as you know, the president in the next ten years, we're going to change the emissions and fuel mileage on our cars. it's going to save consumers

$1.7 trillion and 12 billion barrels of oil. >> i told what you the american public believes to be the tipping point, $5.30 a gallon. with your political expertise and experience, where do you think the tipping point is? >> i would say anything over $5. >> if it's got a 5 in front of it, it's a problem. >> public understands this is not one president, it's all of us working together. we have to stop this divisive politics in washington where nothing is getting done and other nations are moving ahead of us at warp speed. this is what drives me crazy. >> the thing about the gas prices is the ripple effects of this are not duplicated in any other -- in other words, you feel it in everything. and i could tell you right now planning a summer vacation. it's midmarch, i'm starting to think where are we going. families across the country saying we're going to drive where we're going, factoring this in, it's a big issue politically. >> nothing could really do more debilitating effects on the economy than high gas prices. how about the truckers on the road today trying to deliver

goods and services. it effects everybody. but as i say he's at least got a long-term approach on what to do. you don't hear anything from the other side. the president said all the above, let's try it all, and he's trying and he gets thwarted on many different steps but he's done it when we're going to bring the standards, we're going to be able to double the standards we have today on our cars. those are the types of things we have to do. we're drilling more than we've ever done before. the president is doing it. >> why do you think you're going to succeed in your new venture given the difficulty the chevy volt has had? >> one big reason, go to my website, green tech for america. we sell our cards affordably. $15,000 for 100 miles. 80% of americans drive less than 40 miles a day. the average is 17 miles. it's a second utility car. drive it, never fill up with gas. >> i just went to the auto show in philly. i thought the hybrids a couple

years ago frankly they looked hideous. they look nice now. >> great. >> they look nice now. i think vanity has a lot to do with how many you're going to sell. >> thanks. >> the tweet of the day comes from congresswoman nancy pelosi. she tweeted gop claims we can drill our way out of high gas prices. not true. u.s. oil rigs have quadrupled under obama. there you go. the earth's gravil and hurtle us all into space, which would render retirement planning unnecessary. but say the sun rises on december 22nd and you still need to retire, td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans?

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i'm michael smerconish. i'm about to go talk on the radio for three hours unscripted. they told me i have 20 seconds to fill and i'm drawing a blank. follow me on twitter. that wraps up this hour of chris "jansing & co." up next is thomas roberts. immerse yourself in all over relief with alka seltzer plus. it's specially formulated to speed relief to every inch of you. liquidate your flu symptoms with alka seltzer plus.

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we crunch the numbers for you right here this morning. getting gritty. mitt romney talks about grits trying for some down home appeal as he tries to ditch the loser label as he tries to take the south. threes a crowd. the gop contenders all trying to muscle each other out. what rick santorum and newt gingrich need to do to stay in this game. plus, the growing firestorm over a viral campaign to bring down accused ugandan war criminal joseph kony. up to 50 million views of this video and counting, and now the obama administration is weighing in. breaking news on the economy, the labor department reports employers added 227,000 jobs in february. now, that's slightly more than expected, and the third straight month of job creation over 200,000. meantime, the nation's unemployment rate held steady at 8.3%. and that's largely because nearly a half million more people entered the workforce. we have complete c